Epilepsy
yesterday was world epilepsy day - a day to bring awareness to public about epilepsy, a neurological disorder wherein there is a disturbance in the normal electrical activity of the brain. this disturbance causes seizures ('fits' in lay person's language). it may affect the consciousness or the behaviour or the sensory perception of the affected person. the type of seizure, its manifestation varies from person to person. it can be fully cured by a very strict regimen of medication for about 3 to 5 years, depending on the individual case.
there is a big social stigma attached to this disorder and hence many a times the disorder is hidden by the family members and not given the required treatment. lay people are sometimes taken aback by the affected person's behaviour as they do not have knowledge about this condition. this makes them develop certain myths and misconceptions about this condition and hence a stigma gets attached to the condition.
as a mental health worker i would like to inform you all that epilepsy is not to be feared or hidden from society. the condition generally occurs during childhood, but it can manifest at any age during adulthood too. the causes of seizures may be infections, like, encephelitis, brain injury due to fall or motor accident, high fever (febrile fits), in some people even head bath with hot water or it can occur due to any structural abnormality in brain that has occured during the developmental stage of the brain. it can just be a single episode of seizure in a person's lifetime or many such episodes can occur, when it is called epileptic seizure.
it is very important to get the person the due medical attention. the condition should never be neglected or ignored. left untreated, it can cause further damage to brain cells or can even cause gradual impairment of intellectual faculties like perception, understanding, memory or thinking. family physicians, pediatricians or neurologists can treat this condition. diagnostic procedure like EEG (Electro Encephalogram) can determine the specific area of abnormal electric activity in the brain. CT scan or MRI can detect any abnormal growth like tumours in the brain. treatment and dosage depend on the age, family history, probable cause and the pattern of seizures. duration of medication is usually for 3 to 5 years.
there are people who have fought this condition bravely, kept it under control and have made huge achievements in life. jonty rhodes, world famous cricketer of south africa, is brilliant on the field and is a good batsman. our own bangalorean, sri k.c. janardhan, is a world famous calligrapher (handwriting expert) whose services are used by many Management Institutions abroad and in India. thus people with epilepsy are as normal as any of us and may exceed us in many capabilities. it is the obligation of every one of us to render them support, encouragement and accord total respect to them as a productive member of our society.
4 comments:
You forgot to mention another trigger- the fast changing flashes of light that TVs render. These 'dancing lights' these days are increasingly the trigger factors, and in some countries like the UK, the audience are warned of them before the programmes are presented. The 'hot water-triggered epilepsy' was not believed by even neurologists in 1960s. I heard one neurologist in those days ridiculing a woman patient for presenting herself as a epileptic patient as her ' weekly oil bath' triggered some strange seizures.
I agree that in the 21st century people are ignorant of this condition (I will not call this a 'disease'). The sufferers of this conditions need every support that fellow human beings can provide. A few well known TV presenters in the UK have had this disease. Something tangible can done to create proper understnding of this disease. It is duty of every epileptic who carries his or her work normally to 'come out' to create better understanding of this condition among communties instead
of keeping quiet in a way hiding it from the world.
Another discouraging aspect is seeking of blessing from so-called miracle men and women, the so-called saints and sadhus (of the 'hugging type or the type who conjure up holy ash from nowhere) for cure instead of seeking expert medical advice.
dear ram, thank u for the aditional point that u have mentioned about bombardment of the light from TV screen on viewer's brain.
and about seeking solace from miracle men and saints and saadhus, i would not like to come in their way of faith, if it contributes to their peace of mind. but definitely we need to tell those people that that alone can not be the remedy.
thank you, sri ram.
In my experience, the most difficult thing for an epileptic is to shed the clandestine existence and to 'come out' revealing his/her condition, which is an honourable act as unlike some afflictions of the modern times, this condition is not their own making. In Indian society, even in enlightened communities, a kind of stigma is attached to this condition, which 'is a collective shame. In the UK and Europe, the epileptics are considered as people with special needs, and every attempt is made (in schools, universities and in the world of work)to'accommodate' their condition in main stream life of the society. The reason that I raised 'the flashing lights factor' is to highlight the danger that this poses to a few whose brains
are waiting for a trigger factor to produce the first seizure. For this reason, the Indian TV programmes which are ripe with flashes of light (I have seen many such programmes), need a health warning.
A further comment on the medical professionals, particularly the neurologists and neurosurgeons of yore, who tended to dismiss the effect of 'hot water induced epilesy' as sheer non-sense. Once in early 1960s, I accompanied a relative to the private outpatient clinic of a famous neurosurgeon in the then Madras, and asked him why this relative tended to get seizures whenever she took a weekly oil bath. We thought that this 'expensive' neurosurgeon would have the answer. His reply was a shrug of his shoulders, and a comment 'I never take oil bath'! Perhaps he would have been forced think about the cause for this kind of seizure, were he called to give medical care to a minister in the then Tamil Nadu government (which he very often did, and hence built a power base which every neurologist in Madras feared, and were reluctant to differ from him)who had similar experience. If my memory serves me well, it is only in 1970s, after a plethora of 'hotwater' episodic seizures, neurologists sat up and reluctantly accepted the 'hotwater'as a trigger. South Indian weekly oil baths then were indeed rituals, where plenty of hot water was necessary to remove oil from the luxurious long hair of women. It is not a surprise that the 'hot water' epileptics were mainly women.
Yes, i agree that 'coming out of the closet' is a big stigma for these people. i really appreciated the fact that people with epilepsy are also considered as people with special needs and support accorded to them in all spheres of life to mainstream them. but here in India, unfortunately, even the obvious disabilities are many a times not included under the disability criteria to formulate policies of government.
Yes, epilepsy is not a condition of their own making and hence they can reveal it honourably. but so are many conditions like mental retardation, autism. or for that matter, vitiligo or leucoderma. but it is very difficult for the people to accept these conditions as society places very heavy stigma and outcasts them on an emotional level. it is heartbraking to see them trying to hide these conditions. more the dissemination of information about these issues and their harmlessness to others, more it would help to clear the stigma.
Talking about ‘hot water bath epilepsy’, the person that I have quoted in my blog, the Bangalorean Sri KC Janardhan, the handwriting expert, was also experiencing this type of epilepsy. Only in the year 1969, a doctor at NIMHANS was able to correctly diagnose his condition.
I now remember one more factor which is epileptogenic, ie, triggering seizures – certain geometric patterns with complex lines and cells in it. Even certain patterns of flickering decorative lights can provoke a seizure in such people. The bombarding patterns affect the visual cortex in the brain causing seizure! In fact, the logo earlier designed for 2012 London Olympic Games was shelved when epileptics complained that the logo triggered seizures in them!
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